Please remember that there are good deals and bad deals in foreclosures, preforeclosures, short sales, and just regular sales. Stay focused on getting value for your money for the best investment results.

Mr. Speagle, the correct spelling is "LIEN." Not "lean" or "lein" as you spelled it.

Danny, Your on! Send me the "redacted" form of your software to use and I'll email you and make a date so we can chat "on the air". We'll make it available for other Trulians in the form of a "podcast" for their listening pleasure. Or they can just tune our conversation in on the net at the time of the show.
And my apologies to you and all other Trulians for my lapse in judgement and overreaction to your post. Regardless of the validity of our respective positions or data, I behaved in a boorish manner and for all the other Trulians who present themselves in a more "professional" manner here I apologize for my slip!

Mr Kelly

How about you invite me on your radio talk show for a spirited, yet respectful and intellegent chat?

Beforehand, we can agree on topics of discussion.
In addition, ahead of time, I can send you somewhat redacted (due to the proprietary design), yet quite useful and easy to follow reports that my database kicks out.

I believe that you will be impressed with the ingenuity and the thoroughness of my work product.
However, I will allow you to decide whether our discussions and my work product deserves your praise.

Sincerely,

Danny Lee Speagle, President
The Speagle Group
http://www.SpeagleGroup.com
303.993.5193 office
720.936.5877 cell

Danny, Nice retort. I'm await with anticipation the facts you will present to show us all that most property taken back by institutions are for loans which represented 80% LTV. Since Colorado seems to be leading the nation in foreclosesures I find it curious lenders are foreclosing with 20% equity.
And if you are correct I will beg your humble foregiveness!

Dear Mr. Kelly

You are correct, I did misspell the word "lein."

And no, sir. You did not show me any respect whatsoever.
I don't mind your attempt to correct me.
I do mind your mean-spirited and disrespectful approach.

Sir, I do I know what I speak of and can easily prove every statement. Please realize. that I restricted my comments to the State of Colorado.

I do not understand how you could take what you know about California and use that to argue against what I know about Colorado.

Sir, I will not argue any facts you purport to know regarding California.

Since you live and work in California, how can you possible know anything about Colorada and its foreclosure process and situation?

My comments are well grounded in facts.
I know you won't appreciate this part where I tell you why I am correct on everything I said, but here it goes.

Two years ago, I designed and built a comprehensive real estate database designed to analyze every aspect of the real estate market here in Colorado. Using proprietary mathematical algorithms written in SQL language, and based on an Oracle client/server system, I spared no expense at bringing in and continuously updating every property data table from county resources to many data providers. Long story short, I continuously update and use a RDBS for my work. This allows me to know far more about Colorado than you could ever dream of.

Oh, and although I have a real estate license, please do not assume my education began and stops there. My degree in Real Estate from the University of Florida, my computer programming skills, and my tireless work ethic place me and my facts on my side.

On the otherhand, your two credentials did not help you today.

You are right, Trulia should moderate comments to help people like you from embarrassing themselves.

Danny Lee Speagle, President
The Speagle Group
http://www.SpeagleGroup.com
303.993.5193 office

With all due respect to Mr. Speagle--Get Real! First-learn how to spell the word "Lean"??And I got news for you--we would not be in the trouble we are today with the thousands of "Short-Sale" pre-foreclosure issues nor with the foreclosed properties if these institutions which you so erroneously state, "only loaned 80% of the purchase price...so, you are already working with a seller who starts at a modest discount." We've yet to see anyone in California with 20% EQUITY in the situations we see today. How about over encumbered to the tune of $100,000 to $200,000!!
And every transaction I've ever done always goes through Title and Escrow where one buys TITLE INSURANCE!!
You see--this is why I want Trulia to moderate comments. We get total off the wall comments from a guy purporting to be the "President" of his company!!
Read the "Walkers" comments below and ignore Mr. "President" Speagle!

Pre-foreclosures are typically the easiest to find through NED county filings. However, since everyone else thinks they are some kind of genius and jumps onto that bankwagon, they too will soon discover it is the most difficult type of property to procure.

Let me give you a few great suggestions:

1) Buy properties already foreclosed (bank owned). Most of them are owned by a bank that only loaned 80% of the purchase price...so, you are already working with a seller who starts at a modest discount.

2) Work only with real estate brokers that are specialists--they will pre-analyze the properties for you and can take you straight to the top 10 property deals on that day.

3) Be demanding of your agent. Make them prove to you why the houses they are showing you are great deals, and not just a random bank-owned property they picked out.

4) Insist your agent knows and can protect you from buying foreclosed homes that still have leans on them. Otherwise, you will be responsible to pay those debts or risk being foreclosed on yourself.

Danny Lee Speagle, President
The Speagle Group--Specialists for the Real Estate Investors
http://www.speaglegroup.com
303.993.5193 office
720.936.5877 cell

I agree with the Walkers, it is becoming more difficult and complicated to search for and then successfully purchase a property on the brink of foreclosure.
I would assume you are looking to invest in real estate and want to buy under market value (along with tons of other people).
This can be accomplished with other approaches as well. Forclosures are not the only source of a good deal!
First thing I would reccomend doing is either getting your approval to purchase the home or if you are not financing make sure your finances are liquid becuase it is a big help to have the ability to move quickly if and when you find the deal of the year. Several auctions require money to be available as well.
Hire a realtor and indicate to that person what type of home you want, price range and any other details. FSBO's can be underpriced, some homes that are on the MLS listed by brokers can also be under market value. If you have cash, you have a great tool to just make an offer with a very quick close and that makes it harder for the seller to say no and walk away from a sale when facing another mortgage payment next month.

It will be impossible for me to answer this question in it's entirety because of space and time thus I am only going to touch the tip of the iceberg. Based on your question I am not sure if you are looking to buy from the public trustee at auction, or short sales. Thus, I will approach this answer assuming you are asking about short sales since you say pre-foreclosures.

I believe pre-foreclosures are a way to get better deals than foreclosures. Once the bank forecloses they want to recoup their cost and then they want fair market value for a property they are selling as-is; which drives me nuts! That is a different topic all together.

I'm going to try to give it to you in a nutshell and then suggest you use a broker who knows how to negotiate pre-foreclosures. Experience is a must in negotiating pre-foreclosures. Each bank is different in how they approach the situation. The current loan on the pre-foreclosure home will impact how to negotiate the purchase of the home. Homes with mortgages that carry mortgage insurance tend to have lenders far more willing to negotiate. In Colorado if you are buying a pre-foreclosure there are state mandated forms that must be used whether a broker is involved or not.

Essentially, you have to find the home, use pre-foreclosure state mandated forms, get the sellers to agree to price and then wait and wait on the bank to either accept, counter or decline your offer. Time being of the essence is completely irrelevant to the bank so be ready to wait. Also, be forewarned the banks do their homework. They order an appraisal on the property prior to negotiating any sale. That doesn't mean they won't sell below appraised value but how much less depends on many factors including is the mortgage insured?

If you have further questions don't hesitate to post or contact me directly.

Best of luck,
Susan